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Mark                    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 

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Doing Good on the Sabbath  
3:1 Then Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 

As was His custom Jesus now attends the local synagogue where He meets a man with a withered hand.   

3:2 They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him.

The Pharisees are there scrutinising His every word and action ready to pounce on Him.   They see the man's handicap as an opportunity of bringing an accusation against Jesus.   They had no thought or compassion for the man.   Jesus saw the man's need and then used it as an opportunity of bringing home a truth concerning the Sabbath.   

3:3 So he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Stand up among all these people."

In calling the man to come forward in front of the whole congregation the Lord was challenging the man's faith.   

3:4 Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?" But they were silent.

He then challenges his opponents by asking them the question "is it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath ?".   But they did not dare answer Him for they knew they would be ensnared in the trap that they had hoped to catch Him in.  

3:5  After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

The Lord became angry and grieved over their hardness of heart, in their unwillingness to bend their rules  even for meeting the need of an helpless man.   To the Hebrew 'hardness of heart' meant "a stubborn resistance to the purpose of God (A. Cole).   If to find such hardness in His enemies caused Him so much pain how much more it must grieve Him when He finds it in the common people (John 12:37-40) and in His disciples (Mark 6:52).   At the command of Jesus the man stretches out his hand and as he does so it is healed.   

3:6 So the Pharisees went out immediately and began plotting with the Herodians, as to how they could assassinate him.
The Pharisees did not rejoice to see the man healed they only saw Jesus as a threat to them and the Old Covenant/Testament.   Their hatred for Him was far greater than what they had for their enemies, the Herodians, and so they join forces with them to plan His death.

Note:   Herodians.   These were a party among the Jews who were supporters of King Herod and his family, as they looked upon him as the last hope of retaining for the Jews a fragment of national government, as distinguished from absolute dependence on Rome

3:7-8  Then Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. And from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, and around Tyre and Sidon a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done.

Because of the rejection by the religious leaders in the synagogues Jesus withdraws to continue His ministry in the open places as so many have had to do since e.g. John Wesley.   This time He returns to the seaside where not only the people of Galilee but from all over Israel come to hear Him and be healed.   They came because they had heard from others of the mighty things that Jesus had done.   It is only as we tell others about Jesus can they come to  know that He has power to save them (Rom. 10:14).  There are times in our witnessing however that we need to withdraw and allow the Holy Spirit to work, especially when our witness is rejected.   

3:9 Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd would not press toward him.

The Lord was not heedless to the possibility of being overcome by the crowd and so makes provision for this by asking the disciples to have a small boat standing by that He might resort to and use as a pulpit.   We might wonder why  He should take this precaution for He was divinely protected from the crowds who wanted to throw Him over the cliff in Nazareth ?   God expects us to use our common sense and to make what provision we can.   Remember what Jesus answer Satan when he tempted Him to throw Himself of the temple (Matt. 4:7).  

 
3:10 For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him.

There seemed to be no end to the number of people who needed healing or the number of different diseases.  Here we read that many were healed, which would again suggest that not everybody was.   Not because of Christ's inability but because of their unbelief. 

3:11-12  And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God."  But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

When they saw Him the unclean spirits fell at His feet and cried out acknowledging who He was.   One commenter has suggested that the reason that there was such great activity by demonic power at this time was because Jesus Christ had come to destroy them.   The reason why there is such an increase in the manifestation of demonic power to-day is because the devil and his demons know that their time is short before Christ comes to cast them into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10).   He silences them for He does not need their confession of who He is for He has come to bring that voluntary confession from men.

Jesus calls to a closer walk with Him.   V13 - 19
3:13 Now Jesus went up the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him.

Jesus now departs to the quietness of the mountain where we are told in Luke 6:12 that He prayed before He choose the twelve disciples to a closer walk with Him.   Before we make any decisions, like Jesus we should always pray about it first and have an open heart to receive whatever the answer may be from God.   He is always calling us to a closer walk with Him.

3:14-15  He appointed twelve (whom he named apostles ), so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach and to have authority to cast out demons.

The purpose in choosing these men was to prepare them for the ministry He wanted them to fulfil after His ascension.   Firstly to preach the gospel message and truths concerning Himself, the Father, the Word, and the Kingdom.   Secondly that they may have the same power as He did to heal and cast out demons.

3:16-19 He appointed twelve: To Simon he gave the name Peter; to James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, he gave the name Boanerges (that is, "sons of thunder"); and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

They were certainly a mixed bunch and if they were interviewed by men according to to-days values they certainly would not have been chosen.   But God does not look at the outward appearance or achievements but on the heart (1Sam.16:7).   Simon - hasty, rough and ready whom He re-named Peter, a rock, for Jesus new that a work of grace would be done in his life to make steadfast and sure.   Andrew - the earnest but quiet witness (he brought his brother Simon to the Lord (John 1:40-41).   James and John - Sons of Thunder, boisterous, loud, demanding,(Mark 10:35 -36) and aggressive.   You would never have thought that John would be found leaning, resting on His Master's breast, and that James would be martyred so early in his ministry (Acts 12:1-2).   Philip, slow to understand the truth (John 14:8), but  another earnest witness who found Nathanael (Bartholomew) a thinker, and in whom was no deceit.  Matthew, the hated tax collected and cheat who worked for the Roman enemies.   Dithering and doubtful Thomas, and Judas Iscariot, the thief and betrayer.   The others we know little if anything about.

Division V20 - 27
3:20-21 Now Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat. When his family heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."

This starts first of all with the family of Jesus who did not believe on until after the resurrection.   On hearing that He was so heavily pressed by the people that neither He or His disciples had time to even eat they arrive to take Him back home accusing Him of being mad.

3:22 The experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and, "By the ruler of demons he casts out demons."

The scribes who had come especially from Jerusalem to trap Him takes a hold of the opportunity opened up by His family to accuse Him of being the devil or a demon (Beelzebub means Lord of the flies) and of casting out demons by the power of the prince of the devils (Satan).   

3:23 So he called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan cast out Satan?

Note that Jesus does not get angry or openly rebuke them but calls them to Him and corrects them by giving two parables.   But first of all He asks them a simply clear question "How can Satan cast out Satan ?"  

3:24-25 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom will not be able to stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 

The first parable they would understand from their history, the Old Testament.   A kingdom is united by having one king to reign over them.   Saul was their first king David their second and then Solomon.   The kingdom of Israel was united under them.   But when Solomon died and his son Rehoboam became king because he took ungodly advice the kingdom became divided.   The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin  being the one under Rehoboam and the other ten tribes forming the Northern kingdom and appointing their own king.   The kingdom was destroyed and all the tribes were scattered throughout the world (see 1 Kings 12).   The second parable of a house divided against itself is more personal.   If there is strife or rebellion in the home it will not remain together. 

3:26 And if Satan rises against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand and his end has come.

And so it is with Satan, if he raised up a rebellion against himself, he cannot stand but will bring about his own end. 

  
3:27 But no one is able to enter a strong man's house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can thoroughly plunder his house.

This third parable concerns the Lord's defeat of Satan.   The strong man is the Devil, his goods are those he holds captive by sin.   He will not willingly give his goods over but will fight to retain them.   The man who comes to take his possessions is the Lord Jesus Christ who has bound the strong man and set the captives free (Isaiah 53:12; John 12:32; 2 Thes. 2:8; Heb. 2:14).

3:28-30  I tell you the truth, people will be forgiven for all sins, even all the blasphemies they utter.  But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin" (because they said, "He has an unclean spirit" ).

From the foregoing verses when Jesus was accused of doing works by the power of Satan and in these verses it is quite clear that the unpardonable sin is attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to that of the Devil, the sin of the wilfully blind.   Jesus says that 'all" other sins will be forgiven except this one and that he who commits it will be in danger of eternal condemnation.   The devil loves to bind the people of God by trying to convince them that they have committed the unpardonable sin.   '"Any believer who claims to have committed the unpardonable sin is hardly likely to have done so for they would have no feeling of personal concern over the salvation of their soul, or manifest a serious desire to be forgiven"" '(S. Hughes)".   

The Relationship with Jesus.   V31 -35
3:31-33  Then Jesus' mother and his brothers came. Standing outside, they sent word to him, to summon him.  A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you."  He answered them and said, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"

The family of Jesus come on the scene again and we are told specifically that they were His mother, brothers and sisters.   When told that they were outside looking for Him, He looks around upon the people gathered around who were following Him and holding on to His every word and asks "who is His mother and brothers".   For His family were not following or believing on Him at this time.  

3:34-35  And looking at those who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

His answer was, only those who do the will of God, His Father, could claim to be part of His family (John 1:12; 2 Cor. 6:18; Gal. 4:6).   Because we have this relationship with Jesus Christ we are heirs of God and joint heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17).   "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).